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Southlake Regional Health Centre and 91��ɫ bring science and health care together at May 9 Open House

fmaquito — Fri, 06 May 2011 08:00:00 +0000

How can Blackberry smartphones be used to reduce health risks? And what can head injuries teach us about how to rehabilitate our bodies?

Physicians and clinicians from , and researchers from 91��ɫ, will speak at an open house Monday about how they are working together – in the hospital and in laboratories – to answer these types of questions.

The researchers, physicians and clinicians will be available to speak to reporters about their projects, which include:

research with the chronic disease, emergency medicine and surgical departments at Southlake to understand how the brain controls complex movements, shedding light on topics ranging from dementia to concussion.
improved surveillance of cardiovascular disease in 91��ɫ Region through the use of geospatial analysis, which applies statistical analysis techniques to geographically-based data.
investigation of the use of Blackberry smartphones and innovative software to help patients reduce health risks through exercise, diet and improve adherence to medication regimens.
collaboration with cardiac care and oncology clinicians to develop a more personalized approach for targeting the drugs that are used by individuals with cancer and heart disease.

Four research scientists from 91��ɫ’s and have been designed to improve patient care and outcomes, and improve use of technology in the delivery of health care.

Southlake serves 1.5 million people through its regional programs and provides tertiary level care in many areas, offering almost unlimited opportunities for research collaboration between Southlake and 91��ɫ.

What:               Southlake Regional Health Centre welcomes 91��ɫ research scientists in a celebration event that will highlight the efforts of this partnership.
When:              Monday, May 9, 2011, 5:30 – 7:30
Where:             Southlake Regional Health Centre, Auditorium, Level 1, East Building

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of Southlake Regional Health Centre's Corporate Communications department and Media Relations at 91��ɫ.

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Law Professor David Doorey builds app to extend workplace blog's digital reach

fmaquito — Wed, 04 May 2011 08:00:00 +0000

91��ɫ law Professor David Doorey of the School of Human Resource Management has taken the idea of blogging one step further. He’s developed his own for his blog, now available for Apple devices as a free download through iTunes.

Doorey says the main reason he started Doorey's Workplace Law Blog was to better connect with his students. “I wanted to make my courses in workplace law and industrial relations interesting and ‘real’ for the students. By linking course theory and readings to real cases and current news events, I can build student interest in the course in ways a textbook never can.”

Right: David Doorey

But then he thought he could do that even better through an app. “The iTunes app is the next step,” he says. “Most students today have smartphones, and this app means I can now communicate with students daily, wherever they are. They are learning in fun new ways that fit with their lifestyles.”

His central audience has always been students studying in his subject areas at 91��ɫ and at other institutions. His blog looks at all aspects of employment law and highlights some of the more interesting and current cases, such as Fraser vs. Ontario: Constitutional Right to Collective Bargaining Survives, a discussion on whether Target Canada will buy unionized Zellers, and how the City of Toronto Committee voted to fire 300 unionized garbage collectors. Doorey's Workplace Law Blog won a CLawBies – Canadian Law Blog Award – in 2008 and again in 2009, and was a CLawBies finalist in 2010.

“I'm trying to stimulate their critical thinking in the field and make them want to learn more,” says Doorey. “The blog has attracted a much wider audience than just students, including legal and human resources practitioners and other academics, and I anticipate that the app will allow me to connect to more of these busy professionals.”

The blog, and now the app, will help interested students and professionals keep up with what's going on in new case law and in the academic world “as they commute to
work or wait in line to order coffee.” Doorey sees the app as a way to provide a service to the professional community in his field by summarizing relevant news. “It connects me to a whole new audience that is interested in the subject matter of my blog, but whose lives are too hectic to read it,” he says. “With the app, they just tap an icon, and they can quickly see what's going in the field.”

Doorey points out, however, that writing blogs and creating apps is not for everyone. “They are a lot of work to keep up, and you need to be really committed to it over the long haul for it to work. My motivation is my students, who turn over every few months. The new students give me the energy to keep going, since they respond very favourably, and since the blog and app are always introducing new stories and issues to the classroom, it never gets boring for me or the students.”

He is grateful for the help he received from Oksana Silkina and Alex Neumann in 91��ɫ's e-Services office in getting his app created and submitted to Apple for its approval to be published.

For more information, visit Doorey’s Workplace Law Blog or . It is compatible with the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Engineering students' projects at the cutting edge of technology

fmaquito — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 08:00:00 +0000

From a stabilization system for an unmanned plane to a glove that will change the channels on the television with a flick of a finger, 91��ɫ’s fourth-year engineering students are putting practical twists on their research projects.

Seven teams of students from the capstone senior design project course displayed their work in the lobby of the Science & Engineering Building for the sixth consecutive year.

Right: The first place team of Sriyan Wisnarama (left), Shahroukh Sotodeh and Gowry Sinnathamby, with an unmanned remote controlled plane with their stabilization system

Prizes of $500, $300 and $200 were given to the first, second and third ranked team project, donated by . The project involves the design of complex engineering solutions to a real world problem.

Left: Second place winners, from left, Niken Goswami, Stephen Low, Chris Carmichael and Yan Ying Fang. Insert: Stephen Low showing the e-Glove to the judges.

The whole point of it is to come up with a marriage between the idea and the practical outcome, said one of the judges, Michael Sasarman (MBA ’05), director, strategic partnering and sourcing at Ericsson Inc.

“This is very good. It’s better than previous years,” said capstone project course instructor Professor George Zhu, director of the Space Engineering Undergraduate Program and the Space Engineering Design Laboratory. “There is more wireless technology on display this time.”

The project involves specifying the requirements of a suitable solution, selecting and designing a solution, implementing the design, and then testing, evaluating and documenting the chosen solution.

Right: From left, students Thaslim Ghani, Sowmiya Rajagopalan and Tamara Tanurdzic, with their smartphone remote controlled vehicle, which placed third in the competition

The group of students who took first place for their project had a remote controlled plane on display with an installed stabilization system. The Design and Implementation of a Stabilization System for a Remote Controlled Fixed-Wing Model (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) project would help prevent the plane from crashing out of control.

“Whatever orientation the plane has when the stabilization button is hit, it will return to level fight,” said student Gowry Sinnathamby. He was joined by his teammates Sriyan Wisnarama and Shahroukh Sotodeh.

In second place was the Sync Engineering Entertainment Glove with students Stephen Low, Yan Ying Fang, Niken Goswami and Chris Carmichael. The intent behind the e-Glove was to design a remotely controlled single system that is able to universally control functions across a range of electronic devices. That means there would be one device instead of several. The e-Glove would use universal infrared technology with finger gestures, rather than buttons, to control and switch between items such as televisions, stereo systems and clock radios.

Above: From left, Professor George Zhu and Sunil Chavda, director of corporate development for Com Dev International, pose with first-place winners Shahroukh Sotodeh, Sriyan Wisnarama and Gowry Sinnathamby, along with Professor Richard Hornsey, associate dean of science & engineering.

The project that won third – Smartphone Control of an Unmanned Robotic Vehicle – was designed by students Thaslim Ghani, Sowmiya Rajagopalan and Tamara Tanurdzic. The team took remote control technology to a smartphone. Phone rotation would control direction and speed depending on the angle or tilt of the phone, said Ghani. Through a GPS system, the vehicle could also be tracked. The students had mounted a laptop to the top of a small vehicle so the user can see either on their smartphone, or from another laptop, exactly what the camera on the mounted laptop is seeing.

Right: From left, Dan Reynolds, Calvin Midwinter, Patrick Irvin and Bay Ming Jian with the mock-up of their satellite

The practical advantages of this technology, says Ghani, is it can go where a human can’t, such as inside the damaged nuclear plant in Japan or perhaps Mars.

Some of the other projects included a mock-up of a microsatellite (QuickSat) body that is designed by the (CSA) and is licensed to 91��ɫ for educational purposes. 91��ɫ is the first university in Canada to use it in the training of microsatellite technology where students not only design the satellite on paper, but also build a functional prototype. Students Dan Reynolds, Calvin Midwinter, Bay Ming Jian and Patrick Irvin worked on the design and fabrication of a solar panel assembly and its release mechanism under CSA's CAD model and technical specifications.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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New partnership embeds 91��ɫ researchers at Southlake Hospital

fmaquito — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 08:00:00 +0000

A new research initiative involving a partnership between 91��ɫ and in Newmarket will see feature leading scientists from the University serving as embedded researchers at the hospital.

91��ɫ Professors Chris Ardern, , Paul Ritvo and Lauren Sergio will work on site for one to two days a week with hospital clinicians to foster research collaborations and knowledge exchange, and engage in joint knowledge mobilization efforts.

The partnership will realize important benefits to the research communities at both institutions and for the general public, says 91��ɫ Professor (right), associate vice-president research, science & technology, who led the effort to develop the partnership with Southlake Regional Health Centre.

"The embedded 91��ɫ researchers are senior scientists who will explore and cultivate research collaborations between 91��ɫ and Southlake researchers and clinicians," says Siu. "They will act as 'matchmakers' and brokers and will bring 91��ɫ's research expertise and knowledge to Southlake to facilitate collaboration.

"The partnership will broaden the research capacity for both 91��ɫ researchers and the Southlake clinicians," says Siu. "91��ɫ does not have a Faculty of Medicine or a teaching hospital. As a result,��University researchers do not have the patient access they would like to have. By working with Southlake,��the University is enhancing a collaboration that would benefit both parties."

The embedded University scientists bring to Southlake Regional Health Centre their recognized expertise in biomedical and health research. Southlake is the only community-based hospital in Ontario to offer six regional tertiary programs, including child and adolescent mental health, maternal and child,��cardiac and cancer care.

"We anticipate this to be an outstanding opportunity for both Southlake and 91��ɫ," says , director of research at Southlake.

"Serving some 1.5 million people through our regional programs and providing tertiary level care in many areas, the depth and breadth of programs and services, and the unexplored opportunities for reasearch collaboration between Southlake and 91��ɫ are endless," says Clifford.

"Southlake is interested in strengthening its research in terms of breadth and depth and in fact, Southlake is developing a research institute with a plan to become a teaching hospital with an official affiliation with a Canadian university," says Siu.

91��ɫ is a preferred candidate for this kind of partnership with Southlake, says Siu,��because the two institutions have shared goals and visions, and a willingness to work together.

The partnership offers exceptional training and educational opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students working in the research teams, says Siu.

In addition, the opportunity presented by the collaboration between the two institutions is consistent with the goal of integrating teaching and research with the world outside the University that was articulated in 91��ɫ's recent .

More about the 91��ɫ-Southlake embedded researchers

Chris Ardern (left) is a professor in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science in 91��ɫ's Faculty of Health. His current research interests include the epidemiology of physical activity, obesity and cardiometabolic risk. His most recent work has focused on the use of risk algorithms, behavioural profiling and trajectory modelling approaches to identify high-risk subgroups for the development of the metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease mortality. Arden is currently investigating the role of geospatial analysis to improve the surveillance of cardiovascular disease in 91��ɫ Region, and is a co-investigator on the Pre-diabetes Detection & Physical Activity Intervention and Delivery (PRE-PAID) program, a six-month trial of culturally-preferred physical activity. Ardern will be embedded in Southlake's chronic disease portfolio.

In her research, (right) works on a family of proteins known as nucleoside transporters. These transporters play significant roles in a number of clinical settings because they transport drugs used in cancer and are targets of drugs used in some cardiac care settings. Despite their clinical relevance, Coe, who is a professor of biology in 91��ɫ's Faculty of Science & Engineering, says researchers know very little about how these transporters work and how they differ in terms of their distribution, activity and regulation in individual patients. Using a molecular diagnostics approach, Coe and her team will work with Southlake clinicians from both the cardiac care and oncology portfolios to investigate the transporter profiles in individual patients and correlate these profiles with drug treatments and outcomes. The ultimate goal of this work is to contribute to the efforts to develop more personalized approaches to the treatment of disease.

Paul Ritvo (left) is a behavioural scientist who will serve as the research adviser, physical and mental health liaison and special projects scientist. A professor in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health, Ritvo’s research interests focus on electronic health interventions that employ cell phones, smartphones and online programs to change health behaviours in diabetics, HIV-positive individuals and individuals with mental health difficulties. Ritvo will work with Southlake clinicians to extend current intervention studies that use Blackberry smartphones and innovative software applications to help patients reduce health risks by way of healthy exercise, diet and improved medication adherence.

Lauren Sergio (right) is a neuroscientist working in 91��ɫ's Sherman Health Science Research Centre. Her current research projects examine the effects of age, sex, neurological disease and past head injuries (of athletes versus non-athletes) on the brain's control of complex movement. In her role with Southlake Regional Health Centre, Sergio will be an embedded researcher in the chronic disease, emergency medicine and surgical portfolios. She works with a wide range of adult populations, including professional hockey players and Alzheimer's disease patients. Her findings have implications for neurological disease diagnosis and rehabilitation and for understanding the fundamental brain mechanisms for movement control. She is using cognitive-motor integration research to test if new instrumentation developed in her laboratory can differentiate between types of dementia. She is also researching the long-term effects of concussion in young athletes. Sergio is a member of the .

The embedded researcher program at Southlake Regional Health Centre is an example of the collaboration between the Faculty of Science & Engineering and the Faculty of Health at 91��ɫ and is part of an ongoing commitment by the Faculties' deans to work together.

For more information on 91��ɫ's partnerships with regional hospitals, see YFile,��April 17, 2009 and April 21, 2009.

By Jenny Pitt-Clark, YFile editor.

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Dream of exploring shipwrecks? Check out Professor Michael Jenkin's wireless controller and underwater robot

fmaquito — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 08:00:00 +0000

A waterproof controller designed and built by 91��ɫ researchers is allowing an underwater robot to go “wireless” in a unique way.

AQUA, an amphibious, otter-like robot, is small and nimble, with flippers rather than propellers, designed for intricate data collection from shipwrecks and reefs.

The robot, a joint project of 91��ɫ, McGill and Dalhousie universities, can now be controlled wirelessly using a waterproof tablet built at 91��ɫ. While underwater, divers can program the tablet to display tags onscreen, similar to bar codes read by smartphones. The robot’s on-board camera then scans these two-dimensional tags to receive and carry out commands.

Cutting the cord on underwater robots has been a long-standing challenge for scientists; water interferes with radio signals, hindering traditional wireless communication via modem. Tethered communication is cumbersome and can create safety issues for divers.

“Having a robot tethered to a vehicle above water creates a scenario where communication between the diver, robot, and surface operator becomes quite complicated,” says (right), professor in 91��ɫ’s Department of Computer Science & Engineering in the Faculty of Science & Engineering and co-author of the forthcoming paper, "Swimming with Robots: Human Robot Communication at Depth".

“Investigating a shipwreck, for example, is a very delicate operation and the diver and robot need to be able to react quickly to changes in the environment. An error or a lag in communication could be dangerous,” Jenkin says.

Realizing there was no device on the market that fit the bill, Jenkin and his team at 91��ɫ’s Centre for Vision Research, including the paper’s lead author,��master in computer science student , set to work constructing a prototype. The resulting device, fittingly dubbed AQUATablet, is watertight to a depth of 60 feet. Aluminum housing with a clear acrylic cover protects the tablet computer, which can be controlled by a diver using toggle-switches and on-screen prompts.

“A diver at 60 feet can actually teleoperate AQUA 30 to 40 feet deeper. Needless to say this is much easier on the diver, physically and much safer,” Jenkin says.

The tablet also allows divers to command the robot much as if they were using a video game joystick; turn the tablet right and AQUA turns right, too. In this mode, the robot is connected to the tablet by a slim length of optical cable, circumventing many of the issues of a robot-to-surface tether. The optical cable also allows AQUA to provide video feedback from its camera to the operator. In a totally wireless mode, the robot acknowledges prompts by flashing its on-board light. Its cameras can be used to build 3-D models of the environment which can then be used to guide the robot to particular tasks.

“This is a huge improvement on [a robot] having to travel to the surface to communicate with its operators,” Jenkin says.

In the past, divers have used laminated flashcards to visually communicate with robots while underwater. However, these limit the diver to a pre-set sequence of commands.

“It’s impossible to anticipate everything you’re going to want the robot to do once you get underwater. We wanted to develop a system where we could create commands on the fly, in response to the environment,” he says.

Jenkin and Verzijlenberg’s paper will be presented at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) in Taiwan.

Jenkin and Verzijlenberg are two of the researchers based in 91��ɫ’s new state-of-the-art Sherman Health Science Research Centre, which officially opened on Sept. 14. Jenkin leads the Canadian Centre for Field Robotics, which is based on the building’s main level. The centre is supported by a grant from the . The AQUA project is funded in part by the . 91��ɫ's Centre for Vision Research is part of the Faculty of Health.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin

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